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The Details

Vegas is being taken over by the mafia again. This time, it’s Swedish. Its weapon of choice? House music.

DJ/producers Steve Angello, Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso — also known as the Swedish House Mafia — are spinning June 26 at Wet Republic for what may be one of the most anticipated appearances on the scene this year. Presale tickets already are sold out for the Vegas date, which is one of their first West Coast gigs (the first being the day before at the Electric Daisy Carnival in LA). A limited number of tickets may be available day of at the door, price TBD. Steve Angello fills us in on SHM.

What took so long to come to this side of the United States with all three of you?

I think the West Coast is ready now. We were waiting for a big show to introduce the Swedish House Mafia for LA and Vegas, so when EDC came around it was a perfect opportunity to make sure that we do Vegas in the same weekend.

Why should people maybe try to see SHM at both the Electric Daisy Carnival on Friday night, June 25 in LA, and then at Wet Republic during the day on Saturday, June 26?

I think the EDC show is a bigger show. It’s more of a concert; they sell 100,000 tickets. The Vegas show is going to be more intimate, more club and more of us individually DJing and having more fun than the EDC show. It’s two fantastic shows. I think the EDC thing is going to be massive, that’s what Swedish House Mafia is building. We’re kind of building this huge show and then the Wet thing is going to be more intimate, sexy people and more girls. It’s going to be a very good show.

What’s the dynamic like with the three of you in the DJ booth?

We’re tag teaming. We’re all over the place, to be honest. I can play a track, Axwell, throws in a capella, Seb’s [Sebastian Ingrosso] on the effects, or vice versa. It’s what we do solo, times three. It’s a very, very busy show. It’s loads of energy and the pace is very high.

Usually we go each track. I do one, Axwell one, Seb one. But sometimes it’s like, I want to do this, I want to do that, just throw this one in. We’ve known each other for so many years and played with each other so many times, so it’s kind of like playing on your own. They are my extra four arms that I’m missing.

Swedish House Mafia, where did that name come from?

We were a collective of boys just having fun in Sweden. And we were hanging out and just kind of the faces for house music outside of Sweden. We were just hanging out and somebody said, “Yeah, you guys are like the mafia, like all the producers are hanging out.” We had kind of a finger in everything that came out of Sweden, so then one guy was like, “Yeah, you’re like the House Mafia. You’re controlling all the music.” Then we just came up with the Swedish House Mafia, and it started out as a collective and then we became this brand and the world kind of picked up on it. It just built from that.

Steve Angello chats about the first official SHM single “One” (featured in this podcast), the possibility of an artist album, and a non-stop partying bender in Vegas in the Nocturnal Admissions podcast, available for download here.